Identity, Security, Payments, Biometrics, Smart Cards and Authentication News

Using smart cards vs. passwords for identification

Thursday, February 21, 2008

A recent Datamonitor survey shows that 62% of enterprises have experienced problems relating to passwords being shared, borrowed or stolen from within their organizations. The survey of 200 enterprises also found that only 21% of the respondents are confident that passwords will provide sufficient user authentication for their businesses over the next five years. The study, “A new look at the ROI for enterprise smart cards”, was sponsored by ActivIdentity but was carried out by Datamonitor.

More than 200 decision makers were asked to identify the factors that may be changing their approach to deploying smart cards for logical and physical access. Findings include: close to 40 man hours per week would be saved by enterprises in the survey if their ID credentials were replaced by a smart card and single sign-on solution, 80% of respondents recognize that smart cards would provide benefits to their organizations, and the majority of respondents believe that enterprises in their industry are moving towards a single ID for physical and logical access. [end] 

DigitalPersona announced the release of a new version of its Pro Enterprise software solution, version 5.2.

Among the aspects of the new version DigitalPersona is touting are the extensive number of factors a company utilizing the solution can use to authenticate for access to sensitive information or secured computer stations. These factors include what a user knows, such as PINs or passwords, things you have, such as smart cards, contactless identity cards or Bluetooth devices, and things you are, such as fingerprints.

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DigitalPersona released a new version of its Pro Enterprise authentication device. It now contains the ability to support a number of new authentication credentials, enabling organizations to mix and match the ways in which employees securely identify themselves to Microsoft Windows and other applications.

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BadgePass and Digital Identification Solutions have integrated BadgePass’s Identity Manager credentialing software with Digital’s EDIsecure XID 8300 Retransfer Printer for single step smart card encoding and card issuance.

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Microsoft’s Windows 8 will include a feature called Live ID that will enable a user to store any password and then sync it across all other trusted Windows 8 machines, according to a report on theverge.com. Since the Live ID is the only password the user will have to remember, other passwords can be set to long, complex, and unique values that would be otherwise difficult to remember.

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Precise Biometrics has developed a new line of “smart cases” for brands of tablets and smart phones to be released in 2012 and 2013. The new smart cases have built-in card reader and fingerprint sensor enabling users to both secure their devices as well as replace various password-based security for protected online sites and applications.

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Authentication and access provider DigitalPersona released the results of a survey that found more than half of retailers rely on passwords for point-of-sale system login in, even though they also have great concerns over passwords being shared and misused.

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